Any person may examine and/or receive copies of public records maintained by the Roseville Community School District.

A request must be in writing, addressed to the Superintendent and should use the term "Freedom of Information" or "FOIA".

Within five (5) business days of receipt of a request, the Superintendent will do one of the following:

Grant the request.

Deny the request.

Grant the request in part and deny it in part.

Give notice extending the time for response by up to ten (10) additional business days.

If the Superintendent denies a request, in whole or in part, the requester may appeal to the Board of Education. The appeal must be in writing, must use the word "appeal", must state the grounds for the appeal and must be sent to the Superintendent. The Board of Education will decide the appeal within ten (10) business days of its next regularly scheduled meeting or will extend the time limits for a response by up to an additional ten (10) business days.

A denial may also be appealed to the Macomb County Circuit Court.

The School District charges a fee for copies of public records. The fee is $.10/per page for paper records and the actual cost of records provided by electronic media. In addition, a fee is charged for labor costs and the costs of shipping or mailing.

Where the request involves unreasonably high costs to the School District, additional labor costs will be charged.

Indigents and certain non-profits may be entitled to a waiver of the first $20.00 of the fee.

A deposit will be required if the estimated fees will exceed $50.00

KBB FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT – KBB

PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES

Coordinator

The Superintendent is designated as the FOIA Coordinator. The Superintendent may designate the building principal or assistant principal to act as FOIA Coordinator for requests for records that involve only that building.

Written Request

The district will not respond to requests that are not in writing. The Superintendent shall develop forms for making FOIA requests and appeals. Copies of all requests shall be maintained in a central file for a minimum of one year.

A written request made by facsimile, electronic mail, or other electronic transmission is not received until one business day after the electronic transmission is made. A written request sent by electronic mail and delivered to the district Spam or Junk Mail folder is not received until one day after the Superintendent first becomes aware of the written request. The Superintendent shall note both the time a written request is delivered to the district Spam or Junk Mail folder and the time the Superintendent first becomes aware of that request.

District Website

If any or all of the requested records are available on the district’s website, the FOIA Coordinator will direct the requestor to the specific web page address where the requested information is available. No fees will be charged for information maintained on the district’s website. If the requestor asks that the records be provided in paper or other format, then fees shall be charged as in the following Section.

Fees

The Superintendent shall establish a per page fee which will be uniformly charged to any person requesting copies of records. The per page charge shall not exceed $.10 per page. Records that are printed on both sides of a page shall be charged as one page. In addition, the district will charge the actual labor costs of making the copy.

Where copies are requested on disks, video tape, or other non-paper media, the fee shall be the cost of the medium to the district plus the actual labor costs of making the copy.

Where the request involves unreasonably high costs to the district, actual labor costs will be charged for search, examination, review, and the deletion and separation of exempt from nonexempt information, in addition to any per page copy charges.

4. Detailed review of a number of records is required to delete confidential or privileged information;

5. The person making the request is unable to be specific as to the date and/or description of the record;

6. The records are fragile, oversized, or otherwise difficult to handle or duplicate;

7. A large volume of records is requested;

8. Other situations as determined by the Superintendent.

The Superintendent may establish a six-month subscription rate, which shall be paid in advance, for records which are issued on a regular basis.

Postage will be charged for any records that are mailed.

All Fees shall be paid at the time the records are provided.

Estimated Fees – Deposit

Fees shall be estimated, in advance. If the estimate exceeds $50.00, a deposit of one-half of the total fee shall be required. Time limits for responding to the request shall not start to run until the fee is received.

A person who has not paid fees for a request made within the previous 365 days will be required to pay a 100% deposit within the limitations of MCL 15.235(11) and (12).

Labor Costs Defined

As used in this policy, “labor costs” means the hourly rate of the lowest paid employee capable of retrieving the information necessary to comply with the request, even if higher paid employees are utilized. Lowest paid employee does not include co-op students or temporary employees.

The actual fringe benefit cost of the employee, not to exceed 50% of the hourly rate, shall be added to the fee.

Time will be charged in 15 minutes intervals with all partial time increments to be rounded down.

Multiple rates may be charged, depending upon the nature of the request. Where the request requires discretionary review by an administrator, that time shall be charged at the administrator’s rate.

Outside contractors, including the Board Attorney, may be used for separating and deleting exempt information. Labor costs shall be charged at the contractor’s hourly rate, but shall not exceed 6 times the State Minimum Wage.

Inspection and Examination

Reasonable facilities shall be made available for persons wishing to inspect or examine records. The Superintendent may require that such review and inspection be done under the direct observation of an employee of the district. Where records are sensitive to damage, valuable, contain confidential information that must be deleted, or where maintaining the files in a particular order is important, copies, rather than the originals may be supplied. In that case, the person may be required to pay for the copies.

No original records will be allowed to be removed from the district premises.

Fee Waivers

The Superintendent may waive fees if searching for or furnishing copies of the records can be considered as primarily benefiting the general public.

A non-profit described in MCL 15.234(2)(b) is entitled to a waiver of the first $20.00 of the fee for each request.

A person receiving public assistance, or who is otherwise indigent, and submits an affidavit so stating, is entitled to waiver of the first $20.00 of the fee for each request. Multiple requests within five business days of each other will be considered one request for the purpose of the fee waiver. Requests for substantially the same records within one year will not qualify for a second fee waiver.

An indigent individual is not entitled to a discount if the individual has previously received discounted copies of public records twice during the current calendar year. An individual who requests information in conjunction with outside parties who are offering or providing payment or other remuneration to the individual, is not entitled to a discount. The affidavit shall state that the individual is not receiving such remuneration.

Appeal

A person may appeal a denial, the redaction of information, or the fee to the Board of Education. The appeal shall be in writing, shall be submitted to the FOIA Coordinator and shall state the word “appeal”. The Board shall decide the appeal within ten business days, which can be extended for an additional 10 business days. The appeal is considered received by the Board on the date of the next regularly scheduled meeting following submission.